Donald Trump's campaign CEO Stephen Bannon mocked Mitt Romney's five sons in 2012 for skipping military service and making time for Mormon missionary work, according to The Hill.
"[They] have not served their country one day. Oh, but by the way all of them did their two years of Mormon missionary service," Bannon told Conservative Republican Forum Radio, in 2012, BuzzFeed News reported.
Bannon, who was the chairman of Breitbart News and promoting his documentary, "The Hope and the Change" then, slammed Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee for ignoring the war in Afghanistan during his acceptance speech.
"Mitt Romney goes to the Republican convention, gives his acceptance speech, people give him a standing ovation, and he doesn't have the common decency to say one thing about our troops fighting in Afghanistan?" Bannon was quoted as saying.
"This is a guy who avoided military duty in Vietnam; who has five sons who look like movie stars who have not served their country one day. Oh, but by the way all of them did their two years of Mormon missionary work — every one of them."
It may be recalled that during the Vietnam War, Romney received three academic draft deferments and one for his service for the Mormon Church. Trump received four deferments for education and one for bone spurs in his heels.
Meanwhile, independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin, who is Mormon, told BuzzFeed News that Bannon's 2012 comments "are a reflection of religious bigotry."
"This is the kind of revolting intolerance Donald Trump embraces and encourages when he hires a thug like Steve Bannon, who profits from racism, anti-Semitism and religious bigotry against everyone from Mormons to Muslims," McMullin said, according to BuzzFeed.
"Religious, racial and other intolerance should have no place in American public life. Steve Bannon and Donald Trump obviously disagree."
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